Hard disk drives use magnetic media to store data and a movable slider having magnetic transducers (e.g., read/write heads) positioned over the magnetic media to selectively read data from and write data to the magnetic media. Electronic lapping guides (ELGs) are used for precisely controlling a degree of lapping applied to an air bearing surface (ABS) of the sliders for achieving a particular stripe height, or distance from the ABS, for the magnetic transducers located on the sliders. U.S. Pat. No. 8,165,709 to Rudy and U.S. Pat. No. 8,151,441 to Rudy et al., the entire content of each document is hereby incorporated by reference, provide a comprehensive description of ELGs used in manufacturing sliders for hard drives. As described in both of these references, ELGs typically include two leads that sandwich a resistive element.
During fabrication processes for the ELGs described in these references, and other references in the field, it has been observed that variations in the position and size of the leads can make resistance calculations for the ELG inaccurate (e.g., due to variations in the effective ELG track width). As a result of these inaccuracies in the calculated ELG resistance, calibration errors can occur such that the control of the precise dimensions of the magnetic transducer components associated with the measured ELG resistance can become inaccurate as well. Accordingly, an ELG structure that provides predictable resistance for the ELG despite potential process variation is needed.